Mark Gjonaj, the City Council’s first Albanian-American member, was sworn into his position at a community ceremony at the Herbert H. Lehman Educational Campus on Sunday, Jan. 21, reports Patrick Rocchio in Bronx Times. (He had earlier been sworn in at the council on Jan. 3.)

The former New York State Assembly member took the opportunity to address his well-wishers and talk about some of his plans in his new role.

The councilman, a successful real estate broker, who was elected to the assembly in 2012 in the 80th District, pledged to stand up and address issues including the rising cost of living, opioid crisis, and virtual transportation ‘deserts.’

“These and other challenges are real and serious. They require that we work together to meet them head on, but meet them we will,” said Gjonaj to the crowd. “It starts with making sure the Bronx gets its fair share.”

Gjonaj said he wanted to work for “common sense solutions” to ease traffic and make commutes easier for Bronxites, saying it is often easier for someone in Newark, NJ to commute to Wall Street than for his constituents to make the same commute.

He proposed expanding ferry service into the 13th District, putting a two percent cap on real estate tax increases and curbing “out of control” water and sewer rates.

Go to Bronx Times for details on how Gjonaj thinks the opioid crisis should be addressed, and to read what an array of speakers at the event, from state Sen. Jeff Klein to Public Advocate Letitia James, had to say about the new council member.

As the White House urged Congress to withhold $600 million in nutrition assistance to Puerto Rico, officials responded angrily that this is only the latest in a series of President Trump’s attempts to stop the flow of federal aid to the island, El Nuevo Día reports. Political analyst Domingo Emanuelli found the Trump government's actions “barbaric,” and urged Puerto Rican Republicans to reconsider their allegiance. San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz said: “I shouted against Trump’s abuses from the start while others were chummy with him. Trump is not the plantation owner and we are not his slaves.” Link to original story →

The Indigenous Peoples March being held in Washington, D.C. on Jan. 18, a day ahead of the Women's March, will bring together groups from Puerto Rico to South America and Central America, reports Remezcla, to focus attention on issues from voter suppression to human trafficking to police brutality to what is called an “environmental holocaust” by activists. “I think it’s a collective cry for help because we’re in a time of crisis that we have not seen in a very long time,” says Nathalie Farfan, an Ecuadorean Indigenous woman and event organizer. Link to original story →

After vowing to create a more inclusive school system in North Carolina, the Durham Board of Education introduced a new department of second language services to serve newly-arrived immigrants who don’t speak English as a first language, Qué Pasa Noticias reports. One of the main goals of the initiative will be to coordinate a translation and interpretation system to help families participate in their children’s education. “As our Latinx population keeps growing we keep opening our schools’ doors to those arriving from all over the world,” said Superintendent Pascal Mubenga. Link to original story →

With Sen. Kamala Harris expected to announce her decision on a presidential run, The American Bazaar asks members of the Indian-American community about the potential candidacy of the California native. While some celebrated the possibility of Harris, who is of Jamaican-Indian descent, running amid the current political atmosphere, others say the country is "still not ready for a female president and certainly not a non-white." Link to original story →